first garden workday, spring 2006

Katie, digging the canal alongside B2












Day of days...

A huge workcrew showed today! In the morning, Andrew, one of the College Eight garden interns, planted a salad mix. He and another student, Lisa, repotted eggplants and tomatoes and started marigold seeds - the spring species are here! Then Tony came to work with Marley up at the hoophouse...

In the afternoon was when things really heated up. Marley, Katie, John, Tony, myself, and some other folks were having a debate about the paths getting flooded and what was causing it (one area, in particular, has become a miniature wetland, complete with sedges and rushes). Katie and John decided that today was the day to change the poor drainage problem PICA's garden seems to have, particularly on the west side. With Tony's help, they dug a blue streak and created a drainage ditch alongside B2, which now empties out into a large pool dug in the ground. Meanwhile, Biseat and Marley were in the kitchen (recently christened 'the Asylum') making lunch, Kerby was outside taking photos, I was bringing mulch from the Farm, and Ali, Elias, and others were working in the soil. By the time we were all hungry, lunch was being brought outside. The meal was phenomenal.

Work resumed. A bunch of folks planted potatoes by the persimmon tree. Ali demonstrated the famous double-digging method of permaculture. Katie and Tony were now closing in on the finish of the trenching work. I looked for gravel for them, to no avail. Maybe later...

That evening, after putting Tanglefoot on the legs of the tables inside the hoophouse, bringing in the tomato transplants, and locking up the shed, Marley, Adam, and I sat in the kitchen, eating tortillas with ripe avocado, fiery Rooster sauce, and occasionally peanut butter. The setup: tortillas in a rice-cooker steamer top on 'warm'. Best tortillas ever.

What a day of days.